Its intriguing interpretation was based on the well-publicized
and alleged conspiracy theories of the obsessed attorney about the
mystery of the death, and on the testimony of a number of unreliable
witnesses.

Stone employed innovative, masterful and impressive
film editing (with quick cuts and use of various film stocks) through
the work of Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia (who won Oscars), and
he created, through gripping cinematography, a tense, kinetic atmosphere
that mirrored the whirlwind of memories, incidents and scenarios
that played out in the DA's mind.

The film masterfully assembled,
edited and merged, like a jigsaw puzzle, various sources of material
(newsreels, photos, black and white, color, 8 mm, 16 mm, etc., minature
models, and re-enactments) into one film to create a semblance of
truth, but not necessarily real history.

However, Stone was attacked
and dismissed by the American media, CBS, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek and The Washington Post,
for deliberately combining factual and historical footage with hypothetical
footage to make it appear to be one seamless, objective and truthful
record of events. In response, Stone released the screenplay, annotated
with its factual sources.

The trial scene in the last half of the
film featured three very memorable segments to disprove the idea
that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman) acted alone:

(1) a
detailed analysis of the famous Zapruder film (shot near the grassy
knoll) that was subpoened by Garrison's office, but unseen by the
American public ("a picture speaks a thousand words, doesn't
it?"). The
film disproved the Warren Commission's open and shut case of "three
bullets, one assassin" - "the time frame of 5.6 seconds
established by the Zapruder film left no possibility of a fourth
shot." Garrison called junior counselor Arlen Spector's theoretical
assertion of the 'Magic Bullet Theory' -- "one of the grossest
lies ever forced on the American people."

(2)
the scornful rejection of the Magic Bullet theory (the 'official'
Warren Commission version of events) which Garrison declared unlikely
or impossible, demonstrated with a walk-through, a scale model,
and diagrams of the bullet's zig-zag path presented for evidence.
Garrison: "This
single bullet explanation is the foundation of the Warren Commission's
claim of a lone assassin and once you conclude that the magic bullet
could not create all seven of those wounds, you have to conclude
that there was a fourth shot and a second rifle, and if there was
a second rifle, then by definition there had to be a conspiracy."

(3)
Garrison's impassioned closing-statement monologue scene - a final
summation of the case with his damnation of the entire US military-industrial
complex and the possibility of a massive conspiracy and coverup (allegedly
aided by Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones)) surrounding JFK's assassination.
The film concluded with him staring directly into the
camera, and addressing the viewing audience (and jury): "It's
up to you."

In the Shelby County Courthouse, the fourth and final encounter between FBI agent-trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) and ex-psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), played out like a profound, perverted parody
of a "love scene," sexual power struggle, or a complex chess game.

In the middle of the Historical Society Room on the
fifth floor, a massive temporary iron cage had been erected, cordoned
off by black and white striped police barricades. Inside the cage,
Dr. Lecter sat at a table reading, his back to her. Without turning,
he greeted her: "Good evening, Clarice."

In the
remarkable scene in the tightly-guarded room, both alternatingly traded
information and confided in each other - learning vital secrets that
each one coveted. The camera moved to closer angles on their faces
as the scene progressed and the intimacy level intensified.

A domineering
close-up filled the screen with Lecter's forehead as the intimidating
doctor compared everything to Clarice's failed attempt to rescue
a frantic, bleating and "screaming" lamb from the slaughter
when she was a child to her present day motives regarding the rescue
of another innocent victim, Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith):

And you think if you
save poor Catherine you could make them stop, don't you? You think
if Catherine lives you won't wake up in the dark ever again to that
awful screaming of the lambs.

The camera slowly progressed beyond and through the
bars until it appeared that the menacing doctor had broken through
the cell bars to psychologically assault the vulnerable Clarice:

The climactic, terrifying chase sequence in a dungeon-like
hideaway between FBI agent trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster)
and serial killer madman Jame Gumb (Ted Levine)
(aka Buffalo Bill) was prefaced by an amazing, deliberate scene of
editing mis-direction in two linear sequences of separate events.
The FBI closed in on Gumb's empty home in Illinois, where they rang
the doorbell (with a fake flower deliveryman), and ultimately broke
through the door and other windows. Simultaneously, the film cut
to Clarice innocently ringing the doorbell at Gumb's home in Ohio,
where he opened the door and identified himself as "Jack Gordon."

Parallel Editing (Cross-Cutting) and Mis-Direction

Illinois

Ohio

Ohio

Illinois

As she was innocently questioning Gumb at his door,
the film cut back to the FBI in Illinois, where lead agent Jack Crawford
(Scott Glenn) was told: "There's no one here, Jack." A zoom to his
concerned and worried face emphasized that he was mistaken, Clarice
was in danger ("Clarice!") - and he was helpless.

Back at the Gumb house after Clarice was let in,
she sensed that Gumb
was her suspect and held her gun on him. He fled into the multi-room
cellar where Clarice cautiously followed him down the stairwell with
her gun drawn. Swiveling from side to side with her gun for protection,
Clarice found herself in Gumb's laboratory and skinning room, where
big moths flew overhead, and a 'skin suit' was briefly seen on a
dressmaker's dummy. In a bathroom off the workroom, a female hand
and wrist extended up out of a murky mixture in a bathtub.

As Clarice reacted in horror
to the sight, the lights went out and she found herself in total
darkness. Gumb had fitted himself with night-vision goggles (seen
before when Catherine was abducted), and from his perspective, everything
appeared in a greenish tint, and he watched her as she flattened
herself against a wall and tried to get her bearings. [Note: The
sequence was reminiscent of the final fifteen minutes of Wait
Until Dark (1967).]

The serial killer reached out with one hand to
stroke her hair and the skin of her face. His fingers floated through
the air just inches from in front of her. Then he paused, raised
his gun in the air, and cocked the hammer. Its loud metallic click
tipped Clarice to his location. She spun around - in slow motion
- and fired flaming shots from her gun muzzle at him, at point-blank
range, killing him.

She looked around - viewing newspaper clippings
commemorating his own killings, a lingering medium shot of a child's-size
American flag leaning against a dusty Army helmet, and a close-up
of a revolving, turquoise-blue,
"Chinatown" paper mobile emblazoned with a butterfly design.

Two of this action film's best sequences were masterfully edited, showing a neat role reversal:

the former cyborg assassin T-800 Terminator (Arnold
Schwarzenegger) from the first film was really a good-guy Terminator
in this sequel, programmed to protect the young teen John Connor
(Edward Furlong)

This was revealed in The Galleria
chase sequence with both Terminators, including a second bad-guy
Terminator called T-1000 (Robert Patrick) (dressed as a cop), who
were in pursuit of John. The newer model Terminator
was a liquid metal model with pseudomorphic capabilities.

The young boy found himself in the direct line of
fire as both Terminators aimed their guns at him!
The Terminator shielded John's body and blocked the bullets as the
cop emptied his pistol into the cyborg's back - the Terminator then
turned and fired repeated shotgun blasts into the cop's body.

The sequence concluded with the high-speed Flood Control
Channel Chase involving a commandeered big-rig tow truck. The T-800
sailed his bike down into the canal, miraculously keeping the bike
upright when it bottomed out on the ground. He caught up to John,
swept the kid off his motorbike and swung him onto his own Harley.

The big rig at full speed crashed into the divider
which bisected the canal into two channels - the small Harley passed
through one of the channels ahead of the massive truck. The rig exploded
into flames ignited after the collision, although the figure of the
T-1000 emerged from the flames as a smooth, chrome-surfaced man -
a featureless, liquid mercury-like shape, until transforming back
into the cop.

This erotic thriller was most famous for the police
interrogation scene in which ice pick murderess suspect and novelist
Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) had waived her right to an attorney
and was seated in a chair in front of a room full of male police
detectives.

She was poised, cool, and sat there in command of
the situation, refusing to stop smoking even though there was no
smoking permitted in the building:
"What are you going to do? Charge me with smoking?"

She matter-of-factly flirted and manipulatively toyed
with the libidos and sexual appetites of the men as she tersely
revealed her past sexual activities with the murder victim Johnny
Boz and played sex games with their minds.

After admitting to cocaine use with Mr. Boz, she
surprised the attentive audience by directing a follow-up question
toward tough police detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas): "Have
you ever f--ked on cocaine, Nick?"

She smiled and revealingly uncrossed her legs, flashing
her panty-less private parts at him -- and then she re-crossed
her legs in the opposite direction, causing a stir in the room.

In a scene with skillful parallel editing and overlapping
voice-over dialogue, gadabout Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) entertained
and seduced SS German officers with rich food, caviar and drink
in his apartment.

As part of an elaborate confidence game, he provided
some of his pretty secretaries to the men, as he read off a list
of black market items (including perishables and cognac) that he
wanted Polish Jew Poldak Pfefferberg (Jonathan Sagalle) to acquire
(with invested Jewish money) from Poles and provide as bribes:

Boxed teas are good, coffee, pate, uhm, kilbassa
sausage, cheeses, caviar. And of course, who could live without
German cigarettes and as many as you can find. And some more
fresh fruit - they're real rarities, oranges, lemons, pineapples.
I need several boxes of German cigars, the best. And dark and
sweetened chocolate, not in the shape of lady fingers...we're
going to need lots of cognac, the best - Hennessy. Dom Perignon
champagne. Get L'Espadon sardines. And, oh, try to find nylon
stockings.

Under a bridge crossing the Vistula River, a man
pulled aside a tarpaulin covering boxes of fresh fruit in the bottom
of his rowboat and was paid with cash.

A bribed doctor opened a medicine cabinet and pushed
aside medicines, revealing a hidden compartment behind holding
several bottles of Hennessey cognac.

Beneath the ties of train tracks, a metal case was
pulled from beneath one of the timbers, revealing a case of sardines.
(Schindler's voice-over described his business proposition as his
factory opened):

It is my distinct pleasure to announce the fully
operational status of Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrik - manufacturers
of superior enamelware crockery, expressly designed and crafted
for military use, utilizing only the most modern equipment.
DEF's staff of highly skilled and experienced artisans and
journeymen deliver a product of unparalleled quality, enabling
me to proffer with absolute confidence and pride, a full line
of field and kitchen ware unsurpassable in all respects by
my competitors. See attached list and available colors. Anticipating
the enclosed bids will meet with your approval. And looking
forward to a long and mutually prosperous association. I extend
to you, in advance, my sincerest gratitude and very best regards.
Oskar Schindler.

Elaborate gift baskets (of liquor, cigarettes, coffee,
tea, fresh fruit, and other rare luxury goods) with the accompanying
letter from above - were assembled and carried by Schindler's cadre
of pretty secretaries through the factory and strategically delivered
to SS officers (the ones he had earlier been photographed with
in the nightclub) to irresistibly stimulate bids and purchase contracts.

The ultimate con artist, Schindler bribed and schemed
his way toward wealth. The Direktor strode through his factory,
dictating to a parade of his secretaries about production demands
and delivery details. As expected, one of the many SS officers,
Julian Scherner (Andrzej Seweryn), signed and stamped his approval
of a materials contract with D.E.F.

Before composing a list to save as many of his Polish
Jew workers as possible, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) met with
his Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) in his office
in Plaszow.

Both were resigned to their fates from the Nazis.

Schindler reassured his beloved accountant that
he would make sure that he received "special treatment" or "preferential
treatment" and then wearily said: "Someday this is all
going to end, you know. I was going to say we'll have a drink then," but
Stern responded: "I think I'd better have it now."

In the powerfully-edited scene between the two men,
unlike so many other times, Stern now accepted a glass of cognac,
raised it slightly to acknowledge Schindler, and then drank.